Listening for the Still-Speaking God

Most faith communities listen for God’s voice, but in the UCC, we listen in distinctive and particular ways.  And the conviction that “God Is Still Speaking” is more than just an advertising slogan for us …

What Matters: Part Six — We Listen for the Still-Speaking God

Psalm 46:1-11; 2 Kings 19:9-12; [Acts 2:5-8]

Ancient and medieval cities were often surrounded by a wall. Some churches are like that: girded against dangers from the outside, with clear entry and exit points, and guards to make sure only the right people get in. Some churches seem like that too.

I hope that our church feels more like a modern city: formed by neighborhoods, each of which has a clear center, but somewhat fuzzy boundaries which are un-walled and un-guarded.

And if that is true, at the center of our neighborhood is this: We Listen for the Still-speaking God. Of course other religious traditions and faith communities also listen for God’s voice, but in the United Church of Christ, the slogan “God Is Still Speaking” has taken on particular meaning and power.

So how do we listen for God’s still-speaking voice? Foundationally we listen to the Bible. You know, I am sure, that we are not biblical literalists. We do not believe that God dictated the words of scripture, nor that the words printed on the page are the “Word of God.” But we look to the Bible anyway: we look with a critical and analytical eye, we look with a literary eye, and we look with an activist eye. We do our best to discern how the experiences and divine encounters of Biblical characters may speak to us in our present time and present circumstances. We listen for the voice of God in our reflection on these ancient texts, and we undertake this task with great seriousness.

What we find in our study and reflection is often inconsistent, sometimes incomprehensible, and occasionally unsavory. So this morning, for example, we heard two inconsistent (or at least strikingly different) messages: a psalm that proclaims that God is to be found in the city [Psalm 46:5], and then a passage from 2 Kings [19:12] that declares that God is to be found in the “sheer silence” of the wilderness. (You may remember the phrase “still small voice” from the King James version …) Our job is not to harmonize these disparate passages, but to listen for what their contrast may tell us about God. And in general, our job is not to “tidy up” the scriptures to fit a particular theological view, but to remain open to the surprising insights they may bring to us.

We also listen for God’s voice in the traditions that we have received from our ancestors in the faith. As we listen to the doctrines and practices that have come down to us, we do our best to untangle the deep wisdom of our forbearers from the particularity of their experience. Some of you will remember the time when Congregational churches celebrated the Lord’s Supper only a few times a year. During the resurgence of interest in worship that was occasioned by Vatican Two (in the 1960’s), many churches discerned that this practice was too sparse for the full meaning and significance of the sacrament to be received. We have preserved (for the most part) the form of our sacramental celebration, but we have changed the frequency.

The tension between tradition and innovation is always with us, of course. We experience it in our families when we try to change the menu for Thanksgiving dinner, and we experience it in our congregation when we discuss changes in our worship or program. God speaks to us through traditions, and also through innovations; our task is to listen to both.

We listen for God’s voice by our own reflection and reason. I have always objected to descriptions of faith that imply that there is no cognitive content to our spiritual journeys. On the contrary, we believe that God speaks to us through all of our faculties – thinking, imagining, remembering, creating, analyzing, synthesizing – and all the rest. We could not engage with scripture or tradition without using all of these gifts – and I cannot imagine that God would want or expect us to.

And we listen for God’s voice through our experiences. Some of those experiences are direct and dramatic. Think of Saul, the persecutor of Christians, being suddenly blinded on the road to Damascus. Most are much less dramatic. We feel a longing for something and discover that we have a spiritual hunger. We feel called to some work or act of charity, and come to understand that it is God who has called us. We spend time with a person whose spirit-filled nature makes a deep impression.

But there are also experiences that call forth our prophetic voices. When the youth of the church participate in our mission trip or the Urban Immersion Retreat, they encounter realities that are new and disturbing to them. Those experiences awaken in them the energy and determination to work for justice, to build Habitat houses and work at the food shelf. When we encounter social systems and cultural norms that deny civil rights to some of our citizens, or that rationalize the unequal access to quality health care in our country – then our experiences are the medium through which God is speaking to us.

If you were raised in the Methodist church, you may have recognized these four ways of listening for God’s voice; they are traditionally known as the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral” (though Wesley never called them that). We listen for God through scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.

But all of this leaves out the most remarkable aspect of our listening together for the voice of the Still-speaking God. God speaks to each of us in the language which we hear the most clearly. (I am using “language” here to describe all of the ways in which the divine becomes known to us.) Remember the story of what happened on the first Pentecost Day:

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our native language? [Acts 2:5-8]

How is it that we hear, each of us, in our native language? Whatever our age or situation, whatever our personality or background, whatever our shortcomings or strengths – God speaks to each of us in our native language.

So here we are in the United Church of Christ, in First UCC of Northfield Minnesota, gathered in the center of our village, listening for the Still-Speaking God. It matters very much that we keep listening, and that we keep listening together. It matters because listening for divine guidance is the infrastructure that undergirds all the other things that matter to us: the extravagant welcome of God, the covenants that hold us together, the unity of baptism and table, the centrality of Christ, the call to work for a just and loving world. It matters because we are God’s people, the sheep of God’s pasture. It matters because, in the end, it is our confident belief that God is alive and present in the world and in our lives, that gives us energy, resolve, and hope.

Amen.

Prayer for October 25, 2009

Almighty and everlasting God, creator of all things seen and unseen, hear now our silent prayers, as we open our hearts to you in the sacred quietness.

God of faith and hope, we bring before you our prayers for those we have named this morning – we especially remember … Bring to each of them the gifts of mercy and grace that are most needed, according to your wisdom and love.

Great God of history, as we celebrate today the great Reformation of history, we also remember and celebrate the reformations in our own lives.

We remember those moments when clear vision has made it possible for us to turn away from hurtful and aimless old ways, and to turn toward compassion and hope.

For the times we have set aside harmful habits and addictions and moved towards health and wholeness, we give you thanks and praise;

For the times we have let go of resentments and grudges and moved towards forgiveness and reconciliation, we give you thanks and praise;

For the times we have stepped away from selfishness and moved toward generosity, we give you thanks and praise;

For the times we have turned away from romantic temptations and returned to fidelity with our loved ones, we give you thanks and praise;

For the times we rejected the impulse to compromise our financial integrity and have remained honest, we give you thanks and praise;

And for all the times we have resisted the lure of violence and war and have continued to work for your Shalom, we give you thanks and praise.

All these things we pray in the name of the one who transforms our lives and invites us into the wholeness of life in your realm, even Jesus the Christ, and we pray together now in the words that he taught us …